5.  The applicant was born in 1935 and lives in Sofia. He was one of the three co-owners of a house with a yard and a garage located there.
6.  On 24 July 1979 the mayor of Sofia decided to expropriate the house and the garage with a view to the construction of several residential buildings. His order was based on section 98(1) of the 1973 Territorial and Urban Planning Act (“the 1973 Act” – see paragraph 20 below), and said that the applicant was to be compensated with a flat and a garage in a building which the Ministry of the Interior intended to construct.
7.  The expropriated properties were valued at 14,639.07 old Bulgarian levs (BGL)[1]. Following judicial review proceedings brought by the applicant and the other co‑owners, on 16 November 1981 the Sofia City Court increased the valuation to BGL 30,004.65.
8.  In the meantime, by a supplementary order of 2 July 1980 based on section 100 of the 1973 Act (see paragraph 20 below), the mayor indicated the exact flat to be given to the applicant by way of compensation, specifying the building in which it would be located and its exact size and price.
9.  The flat was built and delivered to the applicant in 1984.
10.  In 1987 the applicant was informed that he had not been compensated with a garage because there were none in the building where the flat was located. It was confirmed that he would be offered a garage as soon as the Ministry of the Interior constructed a building with garages.
11.  On 21 January 1999 the deputy mayor of Sofia invited the Ministry to provide a garage for the applicant. In a letter of 3 February 1999 the Ministry replied that it could not satisfy the applicant's request because its buildings had no garages.
12.  On 29 December 1999 the applicant requested the municipality to compensate him with another garage, or to make a new valuation of the expropriated garage, based on its current market price, and compensate him with cash on the basis of that new valuation. On 13 July 2000 the deputy mayor asked a municipal company to carry out a fresh valuation of the garage. In a report of August 2000 three experts employed by that company valued it at 14,867 new Bulgarian levs (BGN). However, the municipality did not act on that report and did not compensate the applicant with cash.
13.  On 22 November 2000 the applicant requested to be compensated in cash on the basis of the fresh valuation. The municipality did not reply.
14.  On 27 December 2000 the applicant sought judicial review. He referred to his request of 29 December 1999 and enclosed a copy of it, but did not mention the request that he had made on 22 November 2000.
15.  In a judgment of 13 November 2001 the Sofia City Court examined the application on the merits and dismissed it, holding that at the time when the applicant had requested a fresh valuation – 29 December 1999 – there had been no legal basis to allow such a request.
16.  The applicant appealed. The Supreme Administrative Court heard the appeal on 26 March 2002. At the hearing counsel for the municipality argued that the Sofia City Court's judgment was correct, and that at the time when the applicant had made his request there had been no legal basis for requesting a fresh valuation. The public prosecutor who took part in the proceedings ex officio submitted that the application for judicial review had been made out of time and should not have been examined on the merits.
17.  On 22 April 2002 the Supreme Administrative Court quashed the Sofia City Court's judgment and declared the application for judicial review inadmissible (реш. № 3957 от 22 април 2002 г. по адм. д. № 858/2002 г., ВАС, ІІ о.). It found that the application, as evident from its text, had been directed against a tacit refusal to grant the request of 29 December 1999, not against a tacit refusal to grant the request of 22 November 2000. It had therefore been made out of time. Under the rules of administrative procedure, the municipality should have replied to the request within one month. Its failure to do so, which had amounted to a tacit refusal, could have been challenged by way of judicial review not later than two weeks after the expiry of that one month. The application had been lodged long after that, on 27 December 2000. The Sofia City Court should therefore not have examined it on the merits.
18.  In judgments of 27 March and 29 October 2003 (реш. № 2951 от 27 март 2003 г. по адм. д. № 7460/2002 г., ВАС, петчленен състав, реш. № 9625 от 29 октомври 2003 г. по адм. д. № 5877/2003 г., ВАС, петчленен състав) the Supreme Administrative Court rejected two requests by the applicant for the proceedings to be reopened.
19.  Meanwhile, on 7 May 2002 the applicant urged the municipality to provide him the requested cash compensation. In a letter of 3 June 2002 the deputy mayor, referring to the judicial review proceedings, informed the applicant that the mayor had still not issued a decision providing that he be compensated in cash.